By Elizabeth Weise, USA
TODAY
USA Today
Medication errors are
among the most common medical errors, harming at least 1.5 million
people every year. The problem is so serious that, on average, a
hospital patient is subject to at least one medication error per day.
These are among the
findings in a report released Thursday by the Institute of Medicine,
chartered by Congress
to advise the government on science and medical issues.
The extra costs of
treating medication-related injuries occurring in hospitals alone
conservatively amount to $3.5 billion a year, the report states. The IOM
panel estimates that at least a quarter of these injuries are
preventable.
"The good news is that
many of these errors are preventable, and preventing them will save
money in the long run," says J. Lyle Bootman, co-chairman of the IOM
panel that crafted the report and dean of the College of Pharmacy at the
University of Arizona, Tucson.
The report recommends that
all health care providers and pharmacies be using electronic prescribing
systems by 2010.
Because the similarity of
drug names causes up to a quarter of all medication errors, the IOM
committee called for the standardization of drug-naming terms. The
pharmaceutical industry should develop a plan to deal with drug naming,
labeling and packaging problems by the end of next year, the report
states.
The panel called use of
medications "ubiquitous," noting that in any given week, more than four
of five U.S. adults take at least one medication and almost a third take
at least five different drugs.
For patients, it is key to
be an active participant in your own care, says Albert Wu, a panel
member and professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore.
"If (your medication)
comes in a different color or different shape, don't just assume that
they sent you the right pill - call and ask," Bootman says. If a doctor
isn't available, ask the pharmacist who issued the drug, he says.
Other IOM recommendations
for patients include:
--Read, understand and
follow the instructions for each drug you take. More than 50% of
patients don't take their medications exactly as prescribed, the report
states.
-- Keep a list of all
medications and all non-prescription drugs taken, as well as all
vitamins and herbal remedies. Review the list with your health care
provider at every visit to make sure there aren't dangerous drug
interactions.
Other IOM recommendations
for the pharmaceutical industry:
-- The Food and Drug
Administration should help standardize the text and design of medication
leaflets so consumers can easily understand them.
-- The National Library of
Medicine should create a website that is a comprehensive, understandable
source of information about drugs and fund a national telephone line for
people who don't have Internet access.
--Health care
organizations should tell patients about medication errors made in their
care, whether they were hurt by the error or not.
